Best MB for amd 64 and pci-e? (upgrading)

Teyrnas

Distinguished
Feb 20, 2006
12
0
18,510
I was looking at a EPoX 9NPA+ Ultra, I was wondering what mb would be
good for overclocking and setting up?
 

Ningenpo

Distinguished
Jan 24, 2006
37
0
18,530
I must recomend Asus a8n32sli deluxe. I have it, great mb.
Cooled with heatpipe, sli, 8ch sound, sata 2... a bit expensive though.

I must say that EPOX (I've owned 2 Epox motherboards) is very stable. I've been checking out reviews of this card and it seems positive. It's supposed to be stable, downsides: not sli capable (if that's even interesting). Also you might want to change the chipset cooler to some Zalman solution, stock it's supposedly a bit noisy.

Good luck choosing something!

(A good tip is to search on google "EPoX 9NPA+ Ultra review")
 

apesoccer

Distinguished
Jun 11, 2004
1,020
0
19,310
That epox is a good board...there are some people that have had issues with it...but like most boards and people trying to oc on them, it mostly chalks up to ID-10.T errors... If people would do their research b4 buying...oh well.

As DVD says below...(all below are referring to nforce 4 boards)

DFI is the best oc'ing board. However it's also the most difficult to oc with.

If i had to rate boards for overclocking, i'd say DFI lanparty boards are Professional/High End Enthusist boards (in terms of oc'ing).

Behind DFI, i'd clump MSI, Epox, and Asus together. (they all have their problem boards...but all in all they've done well over the years)

Behind them...Jetway, Gigabyte and the rest. Jetway coulda been a contend'a...but quantity b4 quality...loses every time.
 

Teyrnas

Distinguished
Feb 20, 2006
12
0
18,510
thanks for all the help!! thank you very much, what dfi board work best
for gaming? the new crossfire ? thanks again
 

apesoccer

Distinguished
Jun 11, 2004
1,020
0
19,310
dfi expert lanparty sli...not sure what it's exactly called, but it has all of those words in the name heh...Actually i think it's DFI LanParty Expert SLI-D or something like that.

The expert has the new power on it...and oc's nearly as well as their older series the DFI Lanparty Ultra and SLI. Ultra is for one pci-e card, SLI is for 2 nvidia* pci-e cards. However the SLI versions you can use just 1 with if you want. Or like i did with my asus premium sli, i bought 1 graphics card and added a second one later on.

*-you'll want to read up on what graphics cards to buy for sli, if you're interested in that kind of thing. It's not as bad as the ati/crossfire setup in terms of what you can buy, but it's got its issues.
 

Ningenpo

Distinguished
Jan 24, 2006
37
0
18,530
I don't know about some mb that are real popular.

Eg

I've had 2 MSI mb, both where totally dead on arival. Got exchange cards on both occations, windows restarting and got alot of blue screens on both of the cards (one k8 agp and one k7).

Same with DFI.

Doesn't matter, whatever you read on the web, they are like the most recomended cards (DFI and MSI). I worked in a computer store a while ago, we got like half of the MSI Neo2 - plat in return. Had to replace every single one of them. So if you're lucky it might be a good card that you get...

I've had 5 ASUS cards, they don't perform best in tests with oc and stuff (but the difference is in 1 or 2 %), but they got stability. When working a year and a half in the computerstore we got 1 return of a ASUS mb. The fool that'd bought it had pushed the DDR in the memory slot (with the key in the wrong place).

It's like you overclock your P4 to 5 Ghz and the computer keeps crashing. Not a lot of solid gameplay. I'd stick to stability

So I go with ASUS and Epox (never had any bad experice with Epox either).

If you don't have a massive budget and have the ability to play at real high resulution like above 16*12, it's better to get one really good card over two in sli. (or CF)

I still recomend one of the ASUS or Epox cards. But search the web for reviews, it's always good to get more information.

Best wishes
 

Teyrnas

Distinguished
Feb 20, 2006
12
0
18,510
thanks for all the advice, I'm not a rich by no means but I like to have a board I can upgrade in the future. Is a GS 6800 SLi card good? Sorry to keep asking so many questions. thanks again all
 

alphakp295

Distinguished
Dec 29, 2005
123
0
18,680
i'll say DFI UT LANPARTY SLI DR-Expert is really good for OC... best...
very sensitive on RAMs though.... and expansive...
due to its price, i bought EPoX 9NPAJ SLI... for 100 bucks...
it's really good... good OC... cheap compared to others... but no Firewire...
with fire wire... it's 140 or something... 9NPA+ SLI...
i don't know about ultra since i've never used it....
but SLI is very good
....
6800 GS... should be very comparable with 6800 GT...
i think 6800 GT is okay....
 

Ningenpo

Distinguished
Jan 24, 2006
37
0
18,530
Firewire, only interesting if you have firewire devices. If you don't and get one later, you can buy a fire wire expansion card for about $15. So to get the + version isn't nessesary if you don't want firewire.

Alot of good boards feature SLi, but that's not why to get them. If you should want sli, you would have to get very extreme cards, otherwise it's smarter to get one good card. Then later on when you have more money, sell the old grapics card an update to a newer version. SLi, you want the fastest board out the and double it. Otherwise the sli solution will perform a little bit worse than a singel card equal in the prise. So go with a sli motherboard if you like the other features on it aswell, otherwise it's not that important.

I must recomend the 6800GS though, my friend has one at stock speeds. It scores equally as my $650 6800 Ultra used to do, for about $275.

But if you manage to get just another $25-50 budget, get a 7800GT. Or wait a while and get 7900GT or wait until prices drop on x1900xt.
 

apesoccer

Distinguished
Jun 11, 2004
1,020
0
19,310
There are 20 kinds of the 6800gs out there. But they're all good for the most part.

I bought one last week. An evga card from newegg. They had like 3 evga 6800gs's available, all with different pre-oc'd options. They were all under $200 too, so i just picked the one with the highest stock oc.

The 6800gs scores higher then my 6800gt's in single mode and stock settings. So at stock in 3dmark05, the 6800gs i bought scored about 700pts higher then my 6800gt at its stock settings. That said, when i oc'd my 6800gt it scored higher then the gs. (So...now i have to see how much farther the gs will oc, and bench it again...). Although i probably won't screw with it too much.
 

Teyrnas

Distinguished
Feb 20, 2006
12
0
18,510
:D THanks everyone for all your input, I needed it very much. I enjoy all the opinions they helped very much. Sorry to ask so many questions. Thank you again.